The Babadook

Splendid horror films are always about something other than what they purport to be. Golden-age classics such as The Texas String Saw Massacre, for example, reenacted the traumas of Vietnam; while Japanese ghost report Ringu resonated with millennial techno-dread.

Based on her 2006 fleeting, Monster, Australian writer/director Jennifer Kent’s feature debut is both a terrific spook report…